Plastics & Rubber World - May/June 2019 - 10

NEWS

New chairman for Castle
Chemicals

Bryan Davies has
been appointed
chairman of
Castle Chemicals.
Based in Manchester, Castle is a leading supplier of chemical additives.
Davies was most recently
commercial director at
Thomas Swan. In 2015, he
received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Chemical Industries Association.
Company MD, Jeﬀrey
Muﬀ, said: "I believe Bryan's
arrival can only enhance our
clients' conﬁdence in our
ability to deliver exceptional
products and service."

Silvergate manager
achieves qualiﬁcation

Sian Davies, compliance manager
at Silvergate
Plastics, has
successfully
completed the
NEBOSH National General
Certiﬁcate in Occupational
Health & Safety.
Davies started studying
for the qualiﬁcation in September 2018 and completed
the course with a distinction.
Sandy Bergeson, Silvergate MD, commented: "To
have gained a distinction
grade demonstrates Sian's
unwavering commitment to
both her professional development and the health and
safety of the people associated with Silvergate Plastics."

Davis joins BPF
committee

Jo Davis has
joined the
British Plastics
Federation's Education & Skills Committee.
Davis, who is operations
director at Broanmain Plastics, will help with steering
future apprenticeship standards across the sector.
Speaking about the new
role, she said: "If we want to
attract speciﬁc knowledge,
skills and behaviours to our
future workforce, businesses
have to have the opportunity
to take ownership and provide input to the standards."

10

WWW.PRW.COM | MAY/JUNE 2019

Research fellow Imogen Napper with one
of the plastic bags used in the study

Photo: Lloyd Russell, University of Plymouth

PEOPLE

ENVIRONMENT

Biodegradable plastics found
to underperform, but research
considered "not a fair test"
A new study completed by the
University of Plymouth has
found that biodegradable and
compostable plastic carrier
bags are still capable of carrying shopping after being exposed to the environment for
three years.
Researchers studied ﬁve
plastic types widely available at
high street retailers in the UK.
The bags were exposed to
air, soil and marine environments to evaluate whether they
would degrade as expected.
After nine months exposure
to the air, all materials had completely disintegrated. However,
Oxo-biodegradable plastic
bags need oxygen and light
to successfully breakdown

after more than three years in
soil and sea, the biodegradable
and oxo-biodegradable plastic
bags were still usable.
Commenting on the study,
Prof. Richard Thompson OBE,
head of the university's International Marine Litter Research
Unit, said: "This research raises
a number of questions about
what the public might expect
when they see something labelled as biodegradable."
Some industry experts,
though, contest these ﬁndings,
saying that the research was
not conducted in a manner
needed to suﬃciently promote

breakdown of the plastic material.
Symphony
Environmental is a leading developer of
additives used to produce biodegradable plastics, including the d2w product. Michael
Stephen, commercial director,
said: "Oxo-biodegradable bags
are not intended to degrade
in special conditions such as
landﬁll or when buried deep
in soil. [They] are intended to
degrade if they become litter in
the open environment on the
surface of land or sea, with an
abundance of oxygen and usually exposed to sunlight."
He further explained that
the experiments conducted
by the University of Plymouth
team were "not a fair test",
largely due to the bags being
tightly packed, which stopped
oxygen reaching the material.
Further, the examples in seawater were placed under a
pontoon, reducing exposure to
sunlight.
Stephen added: "Even in
these situations, [the material]
would have eventually degraded until there was nothing left,
much more quickly than ordinary plastics."
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Plastics & Rubber World - May/June 2019

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